Linda Stokes Textile Artist

Procion Dye Printing & a Quilt

2012-01-25T05:18:00.000-08:00

Some of these are from before Christmas and some a little earlier. Above and below are breakdown prints.

I bought the new book Making your Mark by Claire Benn and Lesley Morgan - the 3 pieces below are from trying some of their techniques. Great book, as all of theirs are. It also includes a DVD which is useful.

Below: another breakdown print - the screen was made by allowing drips of dye to run down it - when dry they formed the resist.

I've also been doing more quilting - finished this small 32" square top recently. It was from another new book I bought: Scrap Republic by Emily Cier. The quilts are mostly simple and she has a great sense of colour. I enjoyed doing this one. Maybe some of you quilters could advise me - I'm not sure what colour thread to use for the quilting - it will be just machine stitched lines - is it best to use a neutral coloured thread? a variegated? or what?

I also finished my entry for Beneath the Southern Sky exhibition today right on the deadline! - will let you know how it goes. I have no expectations.

A change is as good as a holiday

2012-01-09T23:39:00.000-08:00

In January, when its usually very hot here - too hot for the studio - I like to do some different things. Above: my first blocks for the Craftsy BOM (so far, so good) and below: I had these charm squares that were not to my taste but I didn't want to waste them, so I made a quilted bag for my A3 cutting mat and rulers.

Today I've started a quilt to submit for an exhibition: Under the Southern Sky which has to be finished by 24th Jan. I'm using some fabric that I screen printed quite some time ago which fits the theme.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T03:23:00.000-08:00

One of the things I'm going to do this year is quilting - I've signed up for a free online BOM class at Craftsy and these are the fabrics I've chosen from my collection. I didn't want to buy any new ones but I might need just one more bright pink. The background colour will be white. We'll be doing 2 blocks each month, 20 altogether, which shouldn't be too challenging. I've never made a large quilt before and said I never would, so we'll see how it goes. It's not a huge one - twin size apparently.

I'd like to wish all my readers a happy, peaceful, safe and creative 2012. Thankyou to those who visit, leave comments and follow my blog - its much appreciated.

I see that I'm getting towards 200 followers - will have a giveaway then to celebrate.

I'm not sorry to leave 2011 behind - it's been quite a personally challenging year with family health issues and other things, and so many traumatic events here and overseas, but there were some good things too. My exhibition (shared with my husband's wood turning) and tutoring at Fibres West are 2 that come to mind. My husband's health is much better now but our parents still have ongoing health issues.

I'm already getting a rapidly increasing things to do list for this year. It includes:

Dressmaking, revamping my Etsy shop with more designs for my thermofax screens and some printed fabrics, setting up a blog for Designing Women, much more work with dye printing, teaching, submitting entries for exhibitions and working towards the Designing Women exhibition later this year.

That's it for the new year resolutions! (not really resolutions - just intentions)

Printing with dye

2011-12-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

The week before Chrismas was quite productive - I had some mixed up Procion dyes that I wanted to use so spent 3 days printing with some good results. The 2 pics are on the print table, before curing and washing out but I have since done that. Top is a breakdown print and below, a thermofax print. I did lots more - will post pics soon.

We had a lovely Christmas spent with family - not too hot this year thankfully, although we're expecting some hot days now. Just came back from a great barbeque meal at our daughters' new place. It was very pleasant sitting out doors this evening.

Christmas goodies & swaps

2011-12-15T22:50:00.000-08:00

Exciting mail today from another of Judy's generous blog giveaways - thanks so much Judy!

Not much happening here in the way of art lately but I went to Trudi Pollard's exhibition opening at Genesis in the Hills last Saturday. Some great work on show and I bought one of her framed pieces. Its only on until Sunday so hurry if you want to see it. She uses a lot of natural dyes from local plants and hand stitching - beautiful!

This week also, I saw another textile exhibition which is well worth a visit in Perth at the WA museum - it's called Prefix and features several of Perth's more well known textile artists as well as some Japanese artists. It has been shown in Japan too. Upstairs there is also a display of Noongar dolls.

I made 2 Christmas decorations for swaps at group meetings but forgot to photograph them. Above is the one I received from Juliet at Designing Women's Christmas lunch.

This is a section of the cool fabric I received from Glenda in the Aus/NZ art quilt Yahoo group swap - she did a roller print from her outdoor table to get the pattern. A scan of 1 of my pieces is below. They're both fat quarters but I've only shown the sections that I scanned.

My fabric (below) is a multi layered print using a soy wax stencil, mono printing, thermofax screen, block printing and over dyeing.

Wishing everyone a happy and peaceful Christmas time.

Covered Journal

2011-11-27T00:32:00.000-08:00

This is the last journal cover for this year. I've done quite a few lately so will take a box of them to the Old Bakery on 8th shop next week.

This came from an embroidery done a few years ago, using the circular attachment of my sewing machine. I was thinking of making it into a bag but journals are quicker to do and seem to sell well. The knitted flowers were a bargain purchase. I was thinking of painting this cover but I think its OK as is - what do you think?

Above: cover opened out.

Thanks for your comments on my last post. I will remove some of the pressed tin panels if the person who buys the property intends to demolish it. I have already taken a lot of rusty tools and various items which I intend to use for rusting fabric. I'll post pics when I get to it - probably next year. Might do some rubbings in situ too.

Rusty things

2011-11-22T05:04:00.000-08:00

Today we were at my Uncle's home doing the final few things before it goes on the market. I took some photos as this is where my father grew up too and I have happy childhood memories of visiting there and exploring the garden which was beautiful then. The house was built about 100 years ago by my grandfather. My grandmother came out from England soon after - I imagine it was a bit of a shock to her.

My Uncle always tells everyone he was born on the kitchen floor - not sure if that is true but my father, the younger brother was born in hospital. I remember there was no electricity for a long time. They had a kerosene fridge and had to light a fire for cooking and hot water. The photos I've posted here are all of the shed and it's gorgeous rusty pressed tin walls.

Below: inside the shed. My uncle was a keen gardener when he was younger, I remember beds of all kinds of jonquils and daffodils, also gladiolas and roses. He used to try to develop new varieties and of fruit too. This was his garden shed - outside is the orchard with lots of old fruit trees. My uncle lived here all his life, except during his war service. He never married. Its a pity he had to leave but he has settled in quite well and seems happy with having more company now.

Thanks for all the lovely comments on my last post - much appreciated.

A quick post

2011-11-20T04:14:00.000-08:00

The top 2 fabrics have been revamped a little - top is done with thermofax screens and below, block printed with a thermofax screen used for the final layer. I packaged up some of my fabrics into variety packs and single fabric packs for 'Gifted' which was last Sunday. I sold quite a few of them as well as thermofax screens, scarves, covered journals, etc. It was a lovely & successful day - caught up with several people I hadn't seen for a while too.

Its been a while since my last post, I've been busy with 'Gifted' as well as family things. We've almost got my Uncle's property ready to go on the market. What a huge job that was - 90 years of accumulated junk! I hope to get back to more regular posts again now.

I recently got Rayna Gillman's new book, Create your own free-form quilts and have been having fun, trying out some of her techniques with scrap fabrics. I'll use these for journal covers. The bottom one is finished. I took it and some other things to the Genesis in the Hills Creative shop yesterday. The shop was started recently by Rivka and Ita to enable local artists and craftspeople to sell their work - it is located near the restaurant car park - a good place to find handmade Christmas presents.

Fibres West: my students' work

2011-10-29T03:43:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of Fay's photos featuring student work done in my recent Mark Making on Cloth workshop. They got some great results, especially since none of them had tried deconstructed screen printing before - although some were experienced at printing and dye techniques. I hope I have some pieces from everyone here.

(Lorna asked what deconstructed printing is so I thought I should explain briefly as others may be wondering too. Sometimes called breakdown printing, it uses thickened Procion dyes which can be painted, dripped, applied with a syringe onto the silkscreen or squeegeed over the screen with textured items underneath the mesh. The dye is then left to dry on the silkscreen. To print with the prepared screen, clear alginate print paste or a contrasting coloured thickened dye is used. It usually requires several pulls with the squeegee to start breaking down the dried dye in the screen. As it breaks down you get wonderful organic marks which change with each print as the dried dye breaks down further. You can continue printing until almost none of the dried dye is left on the screen. It is a very free and unstructured way of screen printing and is a variation developed by Kerr Grabowski from polychromatic printing)

Above: Juliet, who hadn't done much printing or dyeing before but really enjoyed it.

Below: Jan did some fabulous pieces.

Below: Fay used some of my thermofax screens to print T shirts for Christmas gifts as well as doing lots of deconstructed prints.

Hania sent me her own designs to make the 2 thermofax screens below, which she used in the workshop.

I think the above prints are Melissa's - an orange deconstructed print and a great soy wax screen.

Above: Stella's soy wax print, which she over dyed and over printed with stencils she made & a thermofax screen.

Below: Lia's deconstructed prints - she enjoyed layering techniques.

Below: Lyn's prints and printed silk scarf draped over a wooden screen she made.

Above: Mychelle printed lots of wonderful fabrics - this is only a few of them.

Below: more beautiful fabric prints from Hania.

Just realised I don't have any of Margaret's work - have to fix that! She did a lot of pieces with writing and actually made an outfit with her fabrics when she got home.

Above: bottom left is another of Jan's prints - the others are Judiths - also the scarves below.

GIFTED and more

2011-10-22T23:24:00.000-07:00

I've been invited to take part in 'Gifted', Sunday November 13th, It will be an opportunity to purchase gorgeous, handcrafted gifts (or treat yourself) from some of WA's textile artists. I'll have my thermofax screens with some new designs, printed/dyed fabrics, scarves, covered journals etc. Hope to see you there!

Embellish Magazine ran an art cloth swap at the Brisbane Textile Art Festival this year. I'm a little late writing about this but above is a scan of the first page of the article in the lastest issue (Vol 2 Issue 7) My cloth, Corrosion, is at the bottom of the page. I was lucky enough to receive Natural Treasures by Marie-Therese Wisniowski as my swap piece, which I love - it's the piece with rich geens and gold, 3rd row down. More info on her blog.

I had a wonderful, very busy week at Fibres West, with my 11 fabulous students. I'll post some pics of their work next post.

They worked very hard and acheived much. It was a great experience all round - catching up with people, seeing what the other classes were doing, as well as the lecture programme and evening activities.

Unfortunately while I was away, my Mum had to go into respite care - she was in hospital when I left but it was felt that she wasn't well enought to cope at home. Hoping to get services in place soon so she can go home again and also dealing with clearing out my Uncle's property before selling it, things are pretty stressful at present. I may not post as often for a while.

The doileys are from a series I did while a student at Curtin University - more of my old slides now converted to digital format so I can re-visit them.

Going back

2011-10-03T06:17:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready for Fibres West at the moment and 1 of the things I have to do is prepare a 15 minute slide show of my work. All of the pics in this post are from more than 10 years ago when I was a student at Curtin University. They were slides which I've finally had converted to digital images.

We had 10 metre print tables at Curtin, so could print lengths of fabric using a repeat system with huge photographic silkscreens. The print in these photos was made from one of my charcoal drawings and was printed on various fabrics - cotton velveteen for the cushions and bag, wool in the last 2 pics, as well as silk and linen.

I've sold most of the cushions but still have a few in different colour ways and some of the fabrics too.

Detail of heart cushion printed with Procion dye on cotton velveteen.

Below: same fabric - I made the bag from embroidered leftover pieces. This was made without a pattern, just shaping as I went. I could never repeat it!

3 metres of screen printed wool fabric (acid milling dyes) I did miss being able to do this type of work but now I'm finding other ways with deconstructed printing, thermofax screens, etc.

Field of Quilts - Boddington

2011-10-01T04:44:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we drove south east from Perth to Boddington for the annual Field of Quilts. I had not been before but it was a nice day out.

There were vintage cars and bikes for the men to look at, lots of quilts and stalls.

They were lucky that the rain held off at least while we were there - it did rain on the drive home so they may have had to rush to bring in all the quilts.

Boddington is a small town but is well situated on the Hotham River with lovely hilly countryside surrounding. Below: paperbark trees beside the river.

Road trip to Goomalling

2011-09-25T02:42:00.000-07:00

DH is feeling much better now so Friday we drove out into the country to see the wildflowers and Humble Fibres - Vivid Creations, an exhibition of textiles held at the restored Slater homestead in Goomalling (first 3 pics). We enjoyed the textiles and our lunch of home made soup and garlic bread.

Everything was lovely and green but the wildflowers were disappointing in Goomalling - we had to go further north around the Wongan Hills district where they were much better.

Visited Dowerin looking for wildflowers - saw some but not spectacular. Above: entrance to the town with the tin dog.

We stayed overnight in Goomalling then on Saturday went to Wongan Hills and walked the Christmas Rock Trail, near the town (pics below).

Today we went South to Boddington to see the Field of Quilts - I'll post some pics next time.

New work

2011-09-17T06:04:00.000-07:00

Thermofax print - same screens as used on the silk scarf a couple of posts ago - this is Permaset on cotton.

Below: last Sunday I did a workshop tutored by textile artist extraordinaire: Elizabeth Morley at our local Australian Sewing Guild group.

We all made a leaf brooch and tried some of Elizabeth's methods for flowers. The small flowers I used to decorate the brooch, were ones I had done previously. It was an enjoyable day.

Sun print with mizuna leaves (Japanese salad vegetable) Renee planted them in the garden - they've been very good but now are going to seed so I thought I'd use some of the interesting shaped leaves - might do some more but will have to wait until we get a sunny day. Spring seems to have disappeared for now.

The last 2 pics are dye prints done a while ago to which I've added some discharge (de Colourant) I think this has improved them - maybe they are finished now.

New journal quilt

2011-09-07T03:53:00.000-07:00

Water soluble crayons and pencils on white cotton with a gold roller print over the top. Quilted with YLI variegated cotton thread and edges finished with yarn.

Printing

2011-09-01T02:32:00.000-07:00

This silk scarf is screen printed with thickened procion dyes using a crocheted doiley for the deconstructed printing process. Then I made a thermofax screen from a scan of the same doiley and printed with de Colourant to discharge (the lighter lace images) I was very happy with how it turned out - it was started on the spur of the moment to use some mixed up dyes I had left. Sometimes things that don't have a huge amount of working out beforehand turn out the best!

Below: the shapes were drawn with chalky pastels direct onto the fabric, then clear extender print paste was scraped over to seal. this makes it permanent after heat setting. I have washed it - if you miss any parts with the extender, it washes straight out. Afterwards I quilted it. This technique is simple but I love the hand drawn quality of it. I think I'll make a bag with this piece.

Still here

2011-08-29T02:27:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately we are still here. We had to cancel our trip because DH ended up in emergency early Friday morning (we were due to fly out Fri night) Fortunately it happened here and not on the plane and he came home this morning, still recovering though. Thanks to those who sent me information on Amsterdam but I just couldn't go without DH. We chose the river cruise because it would be relaxing and suitable for him but now I guess we'll never go.

Our exhibition ended on Sunday and DD and I took it down Sun night. I hadn't had an opportunity to photograph many of the pieces before-hand so here are some of them. Above: fabric paper background on a prepared canvas, distressed velvet with free machine embroidered flowers. This one has sold - 7 sales of my work - DH did well too.

Below: Rare Bloom: Specimen Box - flower free machine embroidered on soluble then moulded to shape while wet. I found the box which has a glass window in the lid at the reject shop for $5 - it just needed varnishing.

The framed works below are hard to photograph so apologies for the reflections & distortions. Coloured Stones: below - a reverse applique with FME and beading.

All That Glitters: fabric collage with hand made beads.

Patch Work: fabric collage, hand painted/printed, FME, beads and sequins stitched on.

some new pics

2011-08-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

These are some of the fabrics I printed with my thermofax screens at the recent craft fair in Claremont. I sold some screens and caught up with many people I knew so it was good to have the opportunity to be there as a guest artist of The Thread Studio.

Below: isn't this cute - pic sent by one of my thermofax customers who uses the screens to print the designs on her range of children's clothing. You can see lots more on her Madeit shop: Red Alice Couture

This piece (below) was going to be in my exhibition but I didn't have a suitable frame so it didn't make it. The rose is moulded friendly plastic.

Below: 12 x 12 journal quilt in progress - still to be quilted. I haven't been keeping up with these. Too much else happening at the moment.

My workshop at Fibres West is going ahead now there are enough people enrolled which is great. Also happening at the moment: DH just out of hospital and unsure if he'll be able to go on our European river cruise next week, car trouble again after just getting it fixed, 90 year old uncle who I'm guardian of, having to go into permanent care - also next week. You can see why I haven't been doing much blogging lately.

By the way, I'll be going to Europe even if DH can't because unfortunately we don't have cancellation insurance. So would be interested in info on textile related museums, shops etc. in Amsterdam. Any Dutch readers out there?

Exhibition photos

2011-07-31T07:40:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all the encouraging comments on my last post.

Here we are at the opening night - below: Rivka's great food. None left by the end of the evening!

Genesis in the Hills is owned and run by Ita & Rivka who are very community minded and love to support the arts, especially local artists. They have a new exhibition every month as well as live jazz every first Saturday of the month and of course, wonderful food and coffee.

We had over 30 people at the opening which was very good on such a wet night - some traveled quite a distance too and we've both had several sales already.
Thanks to Kana for the opening night photos and thanks to Eugenie for her work displaying the artworks - they looked much better after that.

Exhibtion work.

2011-07-25T05:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a little sneak peek at some of my exhibition pieces. I've spent all of today framing and getting ready - tomorrow we start hanging.

It's going to be a mix of different types of work, some framed, some small quilts and wall hangings a couple of scarves, some old along with the new. Hope it all looks OK together. Just to top things off - I've had a really bad cold all week!

Exhibition

2011-07-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

Our exhibition invitations have arrived - the front above. It's at our local vegetarian restaurant, opening 30th July. So I'm frantically busy trying to get things finished and some framed. It will be a mix of new and some older work.

The weekend after, I'll be at the Craft Fair at Claremont Showgrounds from Friday 5th - 7th August. Dale (The Thread Studio) has invited me to be in her working artist's studio which will be attached to her stand at the fair. I'll be doing some printing and selling my thermofax screens there so I hope you'll stop and chat if you're coming to the fair.

And if you would like me to bring a screen with your own design for you, please contact me.

Low relief screen printing

2011-06-27T06:41:00.000-07:00

I read an article by Marie-Therese Wisniowski in the latest Embellish magazine on this process and had to try it out. She describes it as being similar to deconstructed screen printing but using textile printing inks instead of dyes. (of course you can't leave the inks to dry on the screen as you do with dye) I used the leaves as my low relief objects and also used them to add some prints to these samples.

I can see possibilities for further exploration.

Thanks for all of your lovely comments on my last post - much appreciated.

Above: Red Cap Gum thermofax print design from my drawing of the seed caps from Eucalyptus Erythrocorys a gorgeous tree which has vivid yellow flowers and bright red seed caps. My new designs are not in my etsy shop yet but are on my blog thermofax page.

Better now?

2011-06-23T03:16:00.000-07:00

This is the quilt from my last post which I was going to cut up and re-assemble. I ended up cutting out the middle section only and adding in a new rectangle using some of the left over fabrics. I also added the squares around the border - I had been saving these for ages, waiting for a suitable project. I am now happy with the quilt.

Good News

We have been going through a rather difficult few months because my husband was found to have tumours in his lung. He's had many unpleasant tests and they have found out finally that it's Lymphoma. It's thought to be low grade and for now, he won't even need any treatment which is a big relief.

Quilting adventures

2011-06-15T21:36:00.000-07:00

A few posts ago I showed some dyed fabrics for 2 Lisa Walton workshops I was doing. Above is the result so far from the 1st one: Beneath the Surface. It will be a while before I get it finished as I'm busy with other things but I wanted to get it to the stage where I knew what I was doing with it. At the end of the workshop I had a piece that was totally curved so getting it to this stage was an achievement I think. Maybe curved piecing is not for me. I'm still not sure how you do it while keeping the edges straight.

By the way mine is Above the Surface now - it was an enjoyable workshop despite my curved result.

The above small quilt was a practise piece for free machine quilting - I have quite a few projects that get to the stage of the top pic but don't get them quilted and finished. I'm happy with aspects of this one but as a whole it's not working, so I think I might cut it up and re-assemble it. Any ideas anyone?

New thermofax screen designs

2011-06-12T23:42:00.000-07:00

Some test prints with my new design: Grevillea Leaf - for the smaller A5 frame.
For more information see the thermofax tab at the top of this page.

A couple of breakdown prints using Procion dyes on cotton.

I tutored a workshop for our local group of the Australian Sewing Guild yesterday: Brilliant Colour on Synthetic Fabrics using heat transfer/dispersal dyes. This is always an enjoyable workshop to teach and I think the students enjoyed it too, as well as getting some good results. The pic shows some of them getting their work ready for show and tell at the end - then my camera memory card was full so no more photos.

A recipe for using the heat transfer dyes in a dye bath.
5-6grams of dye (1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons) will dye 100 grams of dry fabric.
Dark colours may require more dye powder - for pastel colours, use less dye: about 1/10 of the amount.
Good, dark shades (black or navy etc) require the use of Polyester Carrier. 1 - 2 teaspoons per litre of water in the dye bath.
Method:
Fill a cooking pot with enough warm water to cover the fabric.
Mix dye powder with a small amount of hot water and add to the dyebath. Stir to make sure dye is evenly distributed.
Add fabric (wet) to dyebath, making sure it is evenly covered.
Note: If you are using Polyester Carrier, it should be added before the dye. Simmer the fabric with the polyester carrier in the dye bath for 15 minutes before adding the dye mixture.
It can also be added during dyeing if deeper colour is needed.

Bring dyebath to the boil, stirring regularly. Simmer 30 - 80 minutes depending on depth of shade required.

Remove fabric after dyeing and rinse well - first in cold water, then wash fabric twice in HOT soapy water. Rinse in warm water until it runs clear. Wash fabric separately for the fist few times it is washed.

A safety note: Do not use any dyeing utensils for food cooking or preparation. Use a dust mask when measuring dye powder. Avoid eye and skin contact.
(The polyester carrier has a strong smell, so do your dyeing in a well ventilated area)

Shibori methods can be used on fabric before dyeing.
Click here for more info and prices for dyes and chemicals

Getting back to work

2011-05-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

Here are my 2 latest journal quilts, the applique on the 1st quilt was designed by folding a piece of paper in 4, cutting out a design, opening it out and using the resulting paper shape as a pattern. Both the background and the applique fabrics were made from scrap pieces, bonding and stitching.

The 2nd is my version of a quilt from an article in the last QA magazine - not very creative of me I know, but it was done while I wasn't feeling up to doing much at all.

I have been getting quite a few orders for the thermofax screens - check out what Emma has been doing with hers that I made with her own design. Lots of other lovely things on her blog too.

For more info, click on the thermofax tab at the top of my blog or go to my Etsy shop.

Black Cockatoos, Pin Cushion Hakea & Fibres West

2011-05-13T23:53:00.000-07:00

I usually take a photo of our Pin Cushion Hakea at this time of year - this year it's particularly good. We're having lovely Autumn weather at the moment so have been enjoying the garden while I recover.

Below: So have these magnificent black cockatoos. Hard to get a good photo of them - this is at the top of tall gum trees and there were many more of them than I managed to get in the picture. They are quite large birds - these ones have white tail feathers and there's another type that have bright red feathers under their tails so they look wonderful in flight. They always seem to be having a great time, flying around in big groups, screeching and pruning the trees. Some people complain about the noise and mess they make but I love them.

They are now becoming endangered which is a pity.

FIBRES WEST 2011 Bunbury October 9 - 15

Textile retreats like Fibres West are a fantastic opportunity to spend quality time with like minded people, learning, working and being inspired and stimulated. Your accommodation is provided as well as good food with no cooking or clearing up involved. You choose 1 workshop from the 10 offered which gives you the chance to work in depth for the week but also to see what other people are doing in the other workshops and attend talks or events most evenings. There are a variety of tutors, some local and some from interstate and overseas.

There are still places available in several of the workshops but you need to get in soon if you are interested. Click on a link or email for more info.

My workshop: Mark Making on Cloth - Extending Dye/Print techniques still has places available.

We will be working with 'deconstructed' or 'breakdown' printing techniques which use Procion dyes and a silkscreen in a very free and spontaneous manner. (an example is shown in my previous post)

Students will explore many exciting methods for creating cloth that is rich in colour and depth including polychomatic screen printing, unusual ways to make stencils and resists (including soy wax) hand painting, block and mono printing, and the use of textile paints, oil sticks and water soluble crayons and pencils.

You really need at least a few days for this workshop so having a week will enable wonderful possibilities for layering of imagery and process.
Events like this do not come along every day!

In my studio

2011-05-02T02:34:00.000-07:00

Above: breakdown print on silk - using Procion dyes. I love this process - hadn't tried it on silk before and not my usual colours but I'm happy with how this has turned out. I think I'll send it for the Artwear Publications complex cloth swap to be shown at the Brisbane Textile Art Festival. You have to send a piece of silk 70 cms square and this is about 80 x 120cms, which is good because I can cut out the best area and keep the rest myself. Finished pieces have to be posted by 31st May.

Another 2 scarves in progress. Same process - left one is silk twill and right one is a fine silk and cotton mix. I've been working hard in my studio for the past week - the weather is perfect for it and I've been trying to get as much as possible done before I go into hospital tomorrow to have my gall bladder surgery. I really don't want to stop work and I'm not sure how long I'll be out of action.

I've shown the above piece in B/W because the colours looked wrong in the photo - it's a screen print on cotton using the same screen as the previous post. I'm going to add some stitching and stretch it over a canvas.

Below: I've wanted to try using a laser print with dispersal dyes for a while - it works! You paint over the print with the dye - the print resists the dye so that when it's heat transferred onto fabric, you get a negative image.

Dyeing up a storm

2011-04-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

These are just some of the hand dyed farics I've been doing over the past couple of days. Both Procions and Napthols, they are for 2 quilt workshops I'm doing with Lisa Walton at the end of May.

Another test print from a new thermofax screen - not my own design this time - from Pattern Motifs, a great source book for copyright free designs. Also check out what Linda Robertus has done with the thermofax screens I made from her own clever designs.

Our morning tea hot cross buns today - hope everyone has a safe and happy Easter.

New beads and fabric

2011-04-17T02:29:00.000-07:00

While I was making this flower screen for the winner of my thermofax giveaway, I decided to do one for me too and do some prints from it. Above: printed on a dyed and discharged fabric with some hand painting added to bring out the flowers a little more.

Printed on another dyed and discharged fabric, without any handpainting. Below: printed on a sunprinted fabric. This looks much better than the photo - the flowers don't blend in as much as this looks like. All these were done using textile printing ink and without washing the screen in between fabrics or colours. You can do a lot of prints as long as you don't let the paint dry in the screen. (this is much more likely to happen when using acrylic paints which dry quicker)

As promised, my practise and class sample beads from my recent workshop: Bizarre Beads. Materials used in the pic below: polyester fabrics, acrylic felt, plastic bags, cling wrap, paper towel, nappy liner, cotton and silk fabrics, tyvek film, fun foam, thermoplastic foam, angelina film, threads, treasure gold, and embossing powders.

Hard to see the detail in some of these shrink plastic and friendly plastic pieces but I was pleased with them. Most will be sewn onto bags or other works. Below: some moulded friendly plastic and fun foam. The fun foam can be easily machine stitched so is good to incorporate into embroidery pieces. Click on any photos to see more detail.

Below: most of these are friendly plastic, softened with a heat gun then tangletuft or some other open type of fabric is embedded. On top of that, another molded piece is placed on. Because the fabric part can be machine stitched these are also great embellishments for other pieces.

I learnt some of these techniques at a workshop several years ago with British textile artist, Sarah Lawrence.

A journal quilt with one of the tangletuft pieces added on.

Below: these flowers could be brooches or embellishments - left is made from tyvek film, middle: machined cords, right: fabric scraps, layered and free machine stitched with brooch back attached.

New purses & winners

2011-04-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

I found the video instructions on this easy way to do zippered purses on Colouricious's Youtube channel and thought it would be a good way to use some scrap fabrics - here are the first 3.

My DH did the draw for my thermofax giveaway yesterday after I made sure I had the right number of entries for everyone so congratulations to Chrissie Day who won a small screen and a piece of printed fabric. Thankyou for all the comments, especially to those who had suggestions and feedback.

Below: I have been slow in posting this fabric I received from Vicky Welsh (3 Creative Studios) it was their giveaway for the March journal quilts which I was lucky enough to win. Yummy colours (Wild Iris), dyed by Vicky and available on her Etsy shop. I haven't managed to do a journal quilt this month yet.

Garden pics & there's still time to win a thermofax screen

2011-04-05T05:26:00.000-07:00

A couple of pics from our garden taken by daughter Renee who is home from Japan. Easter Lillies and doesn't the basil look great! Below is an amazing apple cake that Renee bought at the Nagoya airport shop. I should have taken a photo of the wrapping too - it looked like a giant apple, wrapped in red celophane and inside is a whole cooked apple with layers of delicious cake around it.

Below: our favourite local restaurant Genesis in the Hills one morning when we took the herbs and had coffee and cake.

There is still time to win a thermofax screen - the draw will be on Friday -see the pevious post for details. I've also opened an Etsy shop for thermofax screens so far and will be listing more things as I have time. Click on the link at the top of the sidebar to visit.

I've been flat out, looking after DH and my bead workshop ended up going ahead after all on Sunday, which meant a lot of practise and preparation. I didn't take any photos there but will post some of my practise and demo beads when I've sorted everything out.

New Thermofax Page

2011-03-17T08:22:00.000-07:00

Announcing my Thermofax screen service at last!
The fabrics above were printed with screens I've made using my new thermofax machine - I can do up to A4 size. For all the information, please click on the thermofax heading at the top of my blog.

To celebrate, I'm having a giveaway for anyone who comments - I would be interested in any constructive feedback. If you would like to put a link to this on your blog or order a screen, you will get an extra entry. The winner can choose 1 of the designs below which I will make up into a small framed screen sent to you with a small piece of printed fabric. The draw will be on April 8th. Good luck!

Thanks for all your previous comments and an update on DH who has had knee replacement surgery: he is home from hospital and doing quite well.

Sculpture by the Sea 2011

2011-03-10T04:31:00.000-08:00

A few pics from this years Sculpture by the Sea now on at Cottesloe Beach. I'm sorry I don't know artists' names - we didn't buy a catalogue when we went yesterday but it's a great show as always and on for a while yet.

I think these are my favourites. Made from recycled plastic bags, they remind me of elaborate decorated cakes.

I'm still working on my thermofax page - hope to get it done soon but a few things have delayed it. I've decided that the giveaway will be a small screen with one of my designs with maybe, a little something extra. You'll get a choice from a few designs so stay tuned!

I'm doing a demo on discharging with deColourant for Designing Women on Saturday in between looking after DH who is having knee relacement surgery so lots happening at the moment. But it looks like my workshop: Bizarre Beads for the Embroiderers Guild may be cancelled due to not enough participants which is a pity but may be for the best.

Sample-book covers & postcard

2011-03-06T18:09:00.000-08:00

Last month at ATASDA, Lyn gave a workshop on techniques for making covers for a sample book. Home work was to finish our covers and glue them onto the cardboard supplied. Then this month Lyn would use her machine to make the holes for us and put in the spiral binding and pages. So on Friday I got busy and finished mine. This is how it turned out. I posted the back first because I like it more.

Below: this postcard sized piece had been in the unfinished box for quite a while - I used a new Valdani cotton thread I recently bought from the Thread Studio to stitch around the appliqued shapes then made a backing from some Japanese paper covered pelmet vilene.

We've had a few days relief from our record breaking hot weather over the weekend - lovely to be able to open the windows before midnight! But have not been able to do much in my studio - too busy with family and other things.

I've been wanting to launch my Thermofax screen service but its been too hot to get many samples printed. But look out for an announcement here later this week and maybe even a giveaway too.

New work

2011-03-01T02:47:00.000-08:00

This 12"x 12" journal quilt was just finished. The appliqued shapes started as a separate piece of embroidery but being all olive colours, I thought it was a bit dull so I cut it up into these rectangular pieces. I had trouble finding a suitable background - tried it against many different colours but wasn't happy until I found this one which I didn't think would work but the turquoise blue with the olive and tan livens up the whole piece and now I like it - reminds me of tropical rainforest.

I've used 1 of my thermofax screens (made from a rubbing) to print across the dark area of the above, roller printed fabric - much better!

The 2 procion dyed fabrics above were my demo pieces for my last workshop. I only did 2 fat quarters in the one container (lemon yellow & purple) but the workshop participants did 4 in different colours. I haven't seen how their pieces turned out yet as they batched them on the day then took them home to wash out but its a great method to get a variety of colours - very simple!

I was very lucky to win a blog giveaway by Linda - a piece of her Dutch houses fabric (above) which she designed and had printed by Spoonflower. It arrived this morning - isn't it great? Thank you so much Linda. Check out Linda's blog for some of her new Spoonflower fabrics.

Japan Journal Quilt: Chrysanthemums

2011-02-22T18:20:00.000-08:00

On my first trip to Japan in Autumn, I was struck by the displays of Chrysanthemums at most of the temples and castles we visited. Particularly where they were trained to grow over frames to give a magnificent display, but also in bonsai form and as single specimens.

This 12" x 12" quilt uses some Japanese fabrics and some of my own. The embroidered flowers are from a commercially digitised design which I've stitched out.

The quilt is for the Countries challenge run by the Aust/NZ Quilt Yahoo Group where we complete a quilt every second month.

Print & dye workshop

2011-02-21T04:46:00.000-08:00

Had an enjoyable time on Saturday, tutoring a workshop on scrunch layer dyeing, sun printing, discharging, shiva sticks & various print techniques with a group of hard working ATASDA ladies at our local learning centre. Above: a couple of my demo pieces - left: a thermofax print and right: a sunprint which I have overprinted with a small heart block and the same thermofax screen using a heart shaped mask. The large heart, sunprinted shapes were cut from a non slip mat.

Feb Journal Quilt

2011-02-14T09:08:00.000-08:00

I managed to get a little Napthol dyeing done last week - just blue, for a particular project. The dye was still active so I threw in lots of scrap fabric pieces to use it up. This 12" x 12" quilt was made from some of the dyed scrap pieces.

This week I'm busy preparing for a print & dye workshop I'm doing for ATASDA on Saturday.

Local Bushfire

2011-02-06T20:57:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to let people know we're fine. The bushfire has been close to where we live but luckily for us the strong easterly wind was blowing the fire away from where we are. Unfortunately many others have not been so lucky - I believe 41 (now 72) homes have been lost and many more damaged. I know of one local textile artist who has lost everything and another friend who had a very lucky escape. Thinking of everyone who is affected.

Another journal quilt & more

2011-01-31T04:55:00.000-08:00

My newest journal quilt which I will post on the 3 Creative Studios Flickr Group. It's one piece of fabric - started out as a print. The flowers are made from paper towel used for moping up dispersal dye. I've cut them into shapes, used them for printing on polyester fabrics, then glued them to my quilt fabric and sealed them with acrylic wax. Then made the quilt.

A collection of dyed fabrics that may end up as a quilt - there is enough for a good sized quilt.

Another block printed fabric - looks a bit Christmasy with the green and gold.

In the studio again

2011-01-26T01:03:00.000-08:00

We had a couple of cooler days this week so I was able to spend some time printing in my studio. I was trying out some new thermofax screens with permaset textile printing inks on cotton. The small circle stencil was done with charcoal pencil, riso pen and graphite stick - all came out well. It's only A4 but I've done lots of prints in 2 colours to cover the area.
Click on the photo for a closer look - the photos looked better before I posted them.

Below right: the same circle stencil in different colours and left: another stencil made from a rubbing of an old piece of wood .

Journal Quilts

2011-01-24T02:12:00.000-08:00

My latest journal quilt is made from a half made, quilted bag which I decided would be better cut up and made into something else. I've butted up the pieces, stiched them together, then applied a backing. The edges were turned over to the front and stitched. The original bag fabric was dye painted after it was quilted. After putting it together, I painted the quilt with pastel blue deColourant and ironed it to discharge some of the colour and bring out the texture.

Below: front and back of another journal quilt made of leftovers from a larger quilt. Its a log cabin design but not pieced, just raw edged fabric strips bonded to thin iron on wadding and stitched through all 3 layers.

Still on the topic of quilts: Jan makes Oz Comfort Quilts for people who've lost their homes in natural disasters. She started this after the devastating Victorian bushfires a couple of years ago and is now helping flood victims from the current disaster. She is asking for people to send QAYG blocks to her which she puts together and then organises their distribution to the recipients. She has all the instructions for the blocks and other details on her blog and they are quite simple and fun to do even for me! I sent off 12 last week and have posted a pic on the Southern Hills ASG group sewing blog.

New stuff & some interesting mail

2011-01-13T23:06:00.000-08:00

This is one of the quilts I've been working on - it's quilted but hasn't been bound yet and still needs some embellishment. As I'm not really a quilter, I feel I need some practice with putting a quilt together, quilting and finishing but I won't be doing any very intricate, traditional work. I am enjoying putting together some of my dyed/printed fabrics.

Today's interesting mail was first, my prize from Emma in Skye which had been held up because of the winter weather in UK over Christmas. Lots of goodies in the parcel - papers, fabrics, 1 of her embroidered brooches, yarns, rusted metal - a selection of the things she uses in her wonderful collages. I haven't worked very much with papers lately but I think this lot will inspire something! Thanks very much Emma!

The second interesting mail was the return of my 2 textile tantrum pieces from Dale (the thread studio) These were done early last year and have been traveling and in various exhibitions since. Dale is having a 'pick a pocket' challenge this year, see her website.

Above: samples using deColourant and deColourant plus on Procion dyed cotton and blue commercial fabric. I brought some clear and pastel colours because they had some specials. One thing I really like about the colours is that they don't discernably change the hand of the fabric. The pale stripes on the red fabric was done to use up the product on my brush and it's very watered down but I quite like the effect.

Family Christmas

2011-01-10T00:44:00.000-08:00

Well, daughter Renee went back to Japan last night, after a busy 2 week visit, the decorations have been put away and I guess we're back to normal now. We had a great Christmas lunch at Kathleen's house and then in the evening we had over 40 people at our house. I was too busy to take any photos then!

New Year was quiet but we've had some good times with family and friends over the holidays.

I bought some shelves and storage things at Ikea after Christmas and have been organising my sewing room and spare room so I can more easily access my supplies. Everything is tidy at the moment but that may not last long!

And have managed to do a little textile work in between, mainly quilting. Nothing photographed yet.

Hope you all have a happy and creative 2011.

Christmas Greetings

2010-12-18T02:10:00.000-08:00

I've been putting it off as long as possible but now I really have to get ready for Christmas. It's our turn to have DH's side of the family at our place in the evening, which is a lot of people. Lunch will be at our daughter's home with my parents and our other daughter will be home from Japan too which will be wonderful as I haven't seen her since I went to Japan in April.

I've been doing some work lately, the above fabric is one I've shown before but it looks a lot different now - I think its finished. It is mostly printed and painted with Procion dyes and some discharge with a little fabric paint as well.

Above: I received these beautiful decorations made by Juliet at our Designing Women Christmas breakup lunch. We make a decoration to swap each year - the one I made is below - it went to Liz.

Best wishes for a very happy Christmas to those who celebrate it and hope everyone has a safe, happy and peaceful holiday season.

I'm in print!

2010-12-08T05:35:00.000-08:00

Above: the last covered sketchbook for the year.

Below: Embellish (a newish Australian textile magazine) asked me to to write an article on how I did the fringe on my scarf which won 2nd prize in a competition they ran earlier this year. Well, Fabulous Fringes & Embellished Edgings is published so I'm now in print! The fringe below is the one I used to photograph the steps of making it and the magazine cover is below that. It is great to have a new Australian magazine promoting textiles, artists and related businesses.

Some more exciting news - I've been invited to be a tutor at next year's Fibres West, a week long retreat held at Bunbury every 3 years. I went to the 2008 one as a student and very much enjoyed the experience and the workshop I did with Jane Dunnewold so it will be quite a thrill to be a tutor this time. My workshop is entitled Mark-Making on Cloth - Extending Dye/Print Techniques. For more info on that and the other great workshops on offer, visit the Fibres West website.

More covered journals & exhibtion pics

2010-12-05T01:39:00.000-08:00

Left: Journal fabric hand painted with procion dyes & stitched. Right: fabric scraps bonded to background with fibres and metal leaf flakes trapped under a layer of organza then stitched. The flower is appliqued on top.

Above: opened out journal made from dyed fabric pieces with stitching and an ATC on the front.

Designing Women's A Whiter Shade of Pale challenge works in our exhibtion - below is mine, Flourish, which sold. This is the only photo I have of it finished.

Rich in Stitch Exhibition

2010-11-29T06:01:00.000-08:00

Our exhibition finished yesterday so here are a few pics. It was a great gallery space and the work was beautifully displayed.

You probably can't see the individual pieces very well but top left are 2 of my favourites. They're by Juliet and are both felt pieces.

Another, I liked very much was Margaret's 4 canvases on the theme of 10 - above right. On the far left is the group piece we did last year for the WAFTA Naturally exhibtion. Looking through to the gray wall you can see some of the Whiter Shade of Pale framed works.

Above: looking from the front corner, back into the gallery, and below a closer view. The 2 second from the right on the white wall are mine - the top one was sold on Sunday. The sales were slow to start but by the end we had done quite well. I'll post a few more pics next time.

New covered sketchbooks

2010-11-26T08:55:00.000-08:00

I was asked to do some more of these for a gallery shop. These are the first 4. They were photographed tonight so the colours might be slightly off but I'm going to take them in tomorrow and won't have time then. Top: commercial fabrics pieced and stitched with some block printing and beaded braid added. The middle 2 (opened out) are dispersal dyed and stitched.

Dyed and printed fabric, quilted and embroidered.

An update on our exhibition which finishes on Sunday: It's been quite successful - quite a few pieces sold, including one of mine. We had a big sale on Thursday while I was on roster - a woman brought 7 pieces which was great. Her Christmas shopping I think! The only problem has been that several people said they had trouble finding the gallery. I'll post some pics after it's finished.

herb garden & holiday

2010-11-15T05:33:00.000-08:00

This is our herb garden - DH is a supplier of herbs for our local vegetarian restaurant: Genesis in the Hills. It is great to have fresh herbs available when cooking.

We recently had a short break down south at Dunsborough - the red kangaroo paws above are outside the Margaret River Chocolate factory. Kathleen & Ryan came down too. Here they are at Samudra Cafe, a very relaxing place that has raw foods, yoga classes and retreats. We didn't have a meal but the smoothies, juices and snacks were delicious and we bought some supplies to take home.

This area has so many great beaches, galleries, restaurants, and wineries, it's a beautiful place to visit and we always take home lots of goodies. Also had a lovely swim in the ocean which I should do more often.

Designing Women's exhibition opened on Friday - it looks great with some fantastic work on show. I ended up naming my piece shown in the previous post Windows and Shutters. Thanks everyone for the helpful suggestions.
I've decide to concentrate on sewing myself some clothes now that most of my work for the year is done. I really need some new things and I find it very hard find much suitable to buy in the shops. Today I've almost finished making a top and hopefully a few more to come.

10

2010-10-29T21:50:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of my canvases (theme of Ten) for the DW exhibition - the top one: 10 Leaves, I photographed before sealing the silk paper background and I may also change the finish on a couple of the copper leaves.
Below: is finished apart from the hanging wire. It has 10 cut out pieces which I've then added on top. I need a name for this - any suggestions?

This week was meant to be busy getting my work done for the exhibition, but I've had a bad cold and haven't felt up to doing much at all, but the 3 from this series are nearly there and I have another 3 pieces finished.

Product trial

2010-10-21T07:26:00.000-07:00

There has been some discussion on the Complex Cloth Yahoo group about a new discharging product: deColourant Plus which was being promoted as a less smelly and safer alternative to the existing products. Dave very kindly offered to send samples to interested members so they could do their own testing. I didn't think he would be prepared to post a sample to Australia from the USA but 2 jars (a colourless & a dark purple) arrived last week and I've done a few tests (above)

I found it discharged very effectively, even on some fabrics that hadn't worked very well with other products. There is a smell - similar to Jacquard but not nearly as bad, however I would recommend wearing a mask - it does state on the jar to use it in a well ventilated area.

My samples are all done on cotton dyed with Procion MX except the red fabric wich is a purchased cotton/linen mix.

Top left: stencilled with purple. Top middle: block print with colourless (lightest spots - the tan spots were done previously - I think with bleach) Top right: colourless - block printed on rayon.

Bottom from right: fabric sample before discharging, next - painted with purple and colourless, red fabric - mono and sponge printed with colourless. Bottom from left: block printed, next - painted with sponge brush - watered down colourless.

I found the product quite thick and it still worked well watered down a little. This also gives some more variation in the final colour. All the methods I used worked well - I rather like the effect I got painting both colourless and purple very watered down with a sponge brush (bottom left) I ironed the samples when wet and dry and also left one sample to cure in the sun which worked well too. I did follow the suggestion to leave the ironed fabric 24 hours before washing.

I'm not sure why anyone would want the product in a dark colour - the idea is to add colour at the same time as removing the background colour, but dark colours would show up anyway without the discharge. My only thought would be that the fabric would look different from the back where the discharged areas would be lighter. I did like the purple watered dowm a lot but wouldn't buy it. I will certainly buy the colourless product. Neither changed the fabric's hand. I haven't tried it on silk yet.

Above: more deColourant on 1 metre of rayon. This was my fabric from a round robin last year - I'm liking it much more now but still not finished.

Below: a quilt top I made this week using some of my dyed/printed fabrics. I think I'll add a border but have to put it away for now and get on with my exhibtion work. This was a distraction that happened because I bought a reel of variegated cotton thread and was looking for fabrics that would go with it!

I discovered 2 new shops - Materialise: where I bought the thread and some bits and pieces of quilt fabrics (they have some gorgeous stuff - lots of Japanese fabrics too) Sophie, who owns it, was doing textiles at Curtin Uni the same time as me. The other shop was an outlet shop - Potters Textiles in West Leederville. They had some great fabrics - more for dressmaking but they also had bags of samples and remnants from $3 bag. I got a lovely lot for $19.

Below: a small piece using the left over scraps from the quilt, stitched with the new thread.

Exhibition Invitation

2010-10-18T03:00:00.000-07:00

Our exhibtion opens soon - here is the invitation. I'll be busy over the next couple of weeks getting my pieces finished!

Dispersal dyes & a tidy studio

2010-10-08T03:04:00.000-07:00

Above: some samples with dispersal dyes on poly satin. Before I teach or demonstrate I always like to re-visit the technique, while at the same time, test my dyes are still OK. I really like these quick pieces and will develop them further - maybe a large piece coming up!

I had to take some pics of my studio now I've spent most of the week tidying and re-organizing it - it won't stay like this for long!
I guess I should have taken some before pics but I wouldn't have been game to post them here. It makes me really want to get working - all that space.

Apologies, I forgot to answer some questions from a previous post on Breakdown printing. A couple of books I would recommend on the subject: Breakdown Printing by ClaireBenn & Lesley Morgan, Committed to Cloth and Rayna Gillman's book: Create your own hand printed cloth.

This process uses thickened Procion dye which has dried on the silkscreen. There are various ways to apply the dye - one is to print over something textured like bubble wrap. The dye dries on the screen, retaining the texture or pattern. When clear thickener or a contrasting colour is printed through the textured screen, the dried dye gradually breaks down, giving wonderful organic patterning. You can keep printing until most of the dried dye is gone - any that remains can be easily washed out. Don't try this with textile paints - if they dry in the silkscreen they are permanent!

Thanks everyone who comments - I love to receive them and do try to reply or leave a comment on your blog but sometimes when I get busy I may forget.

Procion dye work

2010-10-01T02:16:00.000-07:00

Some more sample pieces from my recent work with dyes. Top is hand painted & below: mono & roller printed.

Below: screen printed and lines applied with squeeze bottle.

A few silk hand dyes, all done in the same container - the dark ones are organza. A recipe for this method (Cram jar dyeing) is on Kraftkolour's website.

I ran a Procion dye workshop for Innovative Stitches last weekend. I used to be a member, so it was nice to catch up with people and some of them bought several pieces of my dyed fabrics which was very nice. Tomorrow, I'm doing a talk & demo on heat transfer dyeing for ATASDA and people can do some samples if they like - materials, paper & dyes provided for $5.
Next weekend I'm having an open studio for the local branch of the Australian Sewing Guild which of course, means a major tidy up - well over due!

More breakdown prints

2010-09-22T00:14:00.000-07:00

2 larger pieces after washing out. Detail pics following each one. Both Procion dyes on cotton. I was happy with these but may add more after contemplating for a while.

A couple of answers: Manutex is an alginate thickener for dyes so they can be used for printing.

What do I do with my fabrics? I use some for my bags, bookcovers and other items to sell. Some I'll use for quilts or wall pieces and some, hopefully, will work as art cloth.

Garden & new work

2010-09-21T03:28:00.000-07:00

We've been enjoying gorgeous Spring weather (although we need more rain) so I was prompted to take a couple of garden pics.
Top is looking down towards the vegie garden which is shown below.

A new covered notebook using one of my recent prints. This will be a surprize for someone soon.

Another breakdown print - this one is made with bubble wrap. More to come soon - I've been washing out some batched pieces.

Breakdown prints

2010-09-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

This week I've been playing with breakdown printing. These are all from the same screen which I used for monoprinting on another large piece of fabric then left all the dye on the screen to dry. The next day I printed from it with clear manutex - the middle pic is the first pull - you can see how the dye in the screen gradually breaks down with each successive print. The dye in the screen wasn't very thick so I thought I'd only get about 3 prints from it but I ended up getting quite a few. I 've done lots of others this week too but they're still batching.

I just love this process - you can get fantastic organic imagery happening and its very spontaneous - no registration or lining up anything. It is a bit messy though.

Printing

2010-09-13T02:37:00.000-07:00

Lots of printing happening lately - with dye and paint - these are a couple of paint ones. The one above is my soy wax screen print from the last post. I cut it in 2, overdyed it and added more printing and stencilling.

What's new

2010-09-02T02:15:00.000-07:00

Screen print with a soy wax stencil

Tin print with mono printing over

Machine embroidered panel: free motion stitched, heat gunned, cut up and re-assembled. Not finished yet.

This started as a sun print, but the sun disappeared too early so I printed over with more of my plastic thingys (made from milk bottle plastic) then some stencilling with paint and gold shiva stick.

Work in progress

2010-08-28T03:29:00.000-07:00

This is one of my pieces on the Ten theme for the Designing Women 10 years on exhibition in November. It's wrapped around a canvas, just pinned at the moment and it still needs 10 of something - not sure what yet.

Finished

2010-08-17T03:56:00.000-07:00

This was posted before as a work in progress... I finished it and framed it today. Now I need to find a space to hang it.

Thanks for all the comments, I do appreciate them. Judy asked how I printed with the plastic grid shown in my previous post. It is a little fiddly - I do it in the same way I would do a leaf print. Place the leaf or grid on a piece of scrap paper, ink with a sponge roller, carefully pick it up by the edges, place face down on fabric, cover with a piece of clean scrap paper, hold down while rolling over with a hard rubber brayer, lift paper then carefully lift printed object. It also works well for rubbings. I did one with Crayola fabric crayons but haven't transferred it to fabric yet. I think it would be good for gelatin printing too.

Some time in the studio...

2010-08-15T22:21:00.000-07:00

I've had a little time to play with print - here are some of the results. Above is printed from a grid made from fused plastic strips (orange). This idea came from a demo by Liz for Designing Women - doing all sorts of strange things with plastic. I could immediately see many possibilities.

I had used thin plastics in similar ways but not the thicker ones. I'm now collecting rings, milk bottles etc. for more experimentation.

Printed with sliced pool noodles, polystyrene, and grids.

Roller printing on crunched cotton fabric.

Scraped paint over printed with a stamp.

Gift

2010-08-09T01:15:00.000-07:00

These lovely & totally unexpected goodies arrived in the post today from Judy in SA. I was so surprised and very touched by her generosity. Thank you Judy! You can see more of her beautiful creations on her blog.

I'd also like to thank everyone who left such caring and supportive comments on my previous post. It's a wonderful thing to feel part of a great online community. I know I haven't got much to complain about really, compared to many others but I'm still finding it hard to be very creative at the moment.

Things have settled down a little - Mum is at home slowly getting stronger, Uncle is in respite care for 2 more weeks and my pain has pretty much gone - not sure when/if I'll be having surgery - the first available appointment with a surgeon so far is December!

Black on Black

2010-08-02T03:44:00.000-07:00

This is a section of a piece that is 15 x 35cms on the theme of Black is Black. Its the 2nd of a series for our Designing Women exhibtion in November. The 1st, posted earlier, was A Whiter Shade of Pale. It actually has touches of red and siver in it but the colour scan I did turned out much too red.

I haven't been doing much art or blogging lately because of some family concerns. My Mother has been in hospital for 2 weeks but is home today and I've recently become Guardian & Administrator for my Uncle who has Alzheimers. He has been in hospital for 3 weeks and we've been trying to organize some respite care for him because it has been so cold here and he won't keep his heater on. Of course they were in different hospitals so there's been a lot of driving - well over 100kms on a typical visiting day.

On top of that I'm going to need surgery for gallstones!

New bag & postcard

2010-07-17T01:58:00.000-07:00

The bag is made from dressmaking remnants and fabric that was given to me, which I've dyed and printed. The fringe was from a truly daggy white lace poncho that I bought for $1 at an Opp shop - thought the lace would be good for dispersal dyeing (it was). The fringe dyed beautifully with Procion dyes and was the right colours for the bag. BACK view below.

The gorgeous post card and little seahorse were a surprise gift from Judy. Thanks so much, they're both wonderful! Sorry it's taken a while to post them here - been busy with family matters.

The postcard above was made of the left over pieces from the bag and below another new ATC.

I've recently joined a critique group - my first meeting with them was on Friday at my house. I think it will be very useful for me to get some critical feedback on my work - hopefully will help me focus on what is most important to me! That is one of the things I miss since finishing my degree in 1999 - even though critical appraisal of one's work is not always a positive experience.

I've also resigned from Innovative Stitches - I'll miss the people but again, it will help me focus on my own work programme.

New Stuff

2010-06-29T01:42:00.000-07:00

Lace flower free machine embroidered on sticky soluble. 19 x 20cms Not sure what I'll do with this - maybe it needs to part of a larger piece.

New covered journals made from my printed/painted fabrics.

Work in progress: it still needs quite a bit more stitching. I'm making it to fit a frame I have. 29 x 29cms square.

Above: the quilt I did for the swap in the previous post. It looks distorted in the pic but it isn't really. I haven't heard back from the recipient - I hope that means she's away, not that its got lost or she doesn't like it!

Swaps received

2010-06-22T23:09:00.000-07:00

6 ATCs received today from a no theme swap run by the Aus/NZ Art Quilters Yahoo Group. The makers are: Sylvia Orlando, Sue Thomas, Sharon Andrews, Karen Dean, L Clarke & Dorothy Faithful.
The ATC far right (which came yesterday) is from Ruby from the UK who is 8 years old.
Thanks everyone, they're all lovely!

This quilt, 'If The Key Fits' by Annette Sibson, I received last week, also from a swap organised by the same Yahoo Group. I'm really thrilled with this, She has used rusted fabric, Shiva rubbings, some hand painting & embroidery as well as a real old key attached with string. Its beautifully quilted too - I love it - thanks so much Annette!
I forgot to post a pic of the one I swapped - next post.
For a closer look click on the pics.

Last pic is my scarf in Embellish
magazine right page, top, with my
2nd prize certificate. It will be on
display at the Brisbane Textile Art
Festival before it returns to me.

Blog Prizes

2010-06-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all your comments and welcome to those who've signed up as followers. Hope you'll keep visiting and commenting. The 100th follower is Ju-North (prize below made from a project in QA magazine) I got my husband to do the draw for the commenters and the winner is: Judy. Her prize is the little bag above. It's big enough for a mobile or I Pad with an adjustable shoulder cord. (my own design)

2 new ATCs and below: some flowers, all free machine embroidered on vilene 541 except the fluffy purple one which was wrapped around a frame (bangle)

Last week's workshops

2010-06-14T01:16:00.000-07:00

Above: Some of the lovely ladies from Bunbury Creative Textile Group with work from the second day of workshops. The first day we did a little dyeing and lots of printing - the second day was machine embroidery with some foiling, painted vliesofix, burning, solubles, etc.
They have a great venue at the Art Centre which is used by several different groups, and they looked after me well, with delicious soups and cakes for lunch. We stayed nearby with relatives, who it was also nice to catch up with.

Above: A sample piece I did in the workshop and just finished at home - Kunin felt with painted vliesofix ironed on, gold flakes, foil, threads, nylon glitz - topped with a chiffon scarf then stitched and burnt with a heat gun.

Cords made on the sewing machine. Right: cord from yarns, twisted and zigzagged over with small pieces of organza and fancy yarn added.
The 2 circular cords were made from the pantyhose shown left. You cut a strip 3 -4 cms from the leg, then stretch it out while stitching over it with zigzag. These are great for applying to embroideries because you don't have to worry about securing the ends.
The flower in the centre of the pic was done by free stitching on vilene 541. I used the circular cord around the centre of the flower, looping it and holding with a wooden skewer as each loop was stitched in place. These cords also make a nice edge for shapes and I've used them for edging postcards if they turn out the right size.
You might need to click on the pic to see it better.

Big draw and announcement on Friday (see previous post) for commenters.

New Bag

2010-06-03T23:34:00.000-07:00

The bag, front above, back below, is made from scraps of fabric. The base is leftover pieces of rayon dress fabric, scrunched and ironed onto vilene then free machine stitched. The lace is heat transfer dyed curtain fabric. I did the base fabric ages ago with a bag in mind but wasn't quite sure how to do it. The top section was a later piece of work. I was looking through my pile of unfinished things when it suddenly occurred to me that these 2 would go together, and this is the result.

Unlike many people whose blogs I read, I don't stress about unfinished things. I often just start something without a definite result in mind, or just as an experimental piece, or to use a collection of scraps, but I find that these usually end up turning into something and are often very useful when deadlines are looming.

I see I have 95 people who have registered to follow my blog - I think I'll have a giveaway as a thank you. A prize for the 100th follower (please leave a comment so I know who is the 100th) and also another prize draw for any one else who leaves a comment. I'm not sure what they'll be yet - it will have to wait until after my Bunbury workshops. I'll announce the winners in 2 weeks time - Friday 18th June.

Good and Bad News

2010-06-01T21:09:00.000-07:00

The bad news first: my quilt, Red Gum, was not selected for Stitched & Bound. I'm just posting the detail pic today because I will submit the quilt for other exhibitions. This time I went to the trouble and expense of professional photos but I'm not sure if that helped. I think they sharpened the image too much and the colour is actually a bit darker than the photos. I would have taken them back but didn't have time.

Any way, the day after that news arrived, I had a phone call from Embellish Magazine to tell me I had won 2nd prize in their Embellished Scarf Competition and a cheque's in the mail, so that made me feel a little better. It's been quite a while since I entered and I had presumed that I was unsuccessful. The scarf will be on display at the Brisbane Textile Fair, then it will come back to me.

DH with the remains of our tree after the tree loppers finally came back and finished the job. And below, a couple more garden pics of native plants that are flowering in our front garden now.

Pincushion Hakea

Ned Kelly Grevillea

Journal cover, gifts and a swap

2010-05-29T22:04:00.000-07:00

I finished this sketchbook cover yesterday. ( opened out above and closed below) Not my usual colours but I'm happy with it.
I'm teaching two workshops in Bunbury soon, one is called From Trash to Treasure, which is about creating things from leftover scraps of fabric, yarns, ect. so I thought I would get some examples done. Also The Old Bakery Gallery, which sells some of my work, has been waiting for more so the things I'm making will go there afterwards. I have 2 bags almost done too.

The postcard is from Emma, from the Isle of Skye, who is running a swap with fellow bloggers from around to world to celebrate her 50th brthday. I love the combination of papers with the rich touches of gold and metallics. I forgot to photograph mine before I sent it and also my new ATCs before they went off to New Zealand for a swap with a Yahoo Quilt group. Remembered when they were all packaged up but didn't want to unpackage them!

When I met Reiko in Japan, we exchanged gifts. She gave me these lovely little decorations, covered buttons, and notebook which she makes and teaches. Also some kits so I can make some. Aren't they lovely? She also gave me a collection of Japanese fabric pieces and a pattern with everything needed to make a bag. I'll do that after my workshop in Bunbury. I gave her a selection of Australian Aboriginal designed quilt fabrics, one of my postcards and a bag.

Tokyo

2010-05-23T04:42:00.000-07:00

A collage of photos from our last few days in Japan - all in Tokyo. The gardens are Rikugien Gardens again with Reiko and Akiko.
Left, center: a Harajuku girl. These girls are amazing - they must spend so much time on their appearance - we saw several of them on the train and at the Harajuku shopping area - especially popular with the young and trendy (photo: centre, bottom row) The shopping street top left is where Reiko And Akiko took me - not sure what this one is called but there were lots of traditional food shops and restaurants, souvenir shops and a temple.

Thanks for all the nice comments on my quilt prizes.

Japan & the Perth Craft & Quilt Fair

2010-05-19T22:53:00.000-07:00

I made a collage of these photos of wood slats at the village in Takayama - I'd like to use them somehow in my work. Further thought required!
Below: just had to show some more cherry blossom at the temples in Takayama. The tree on the left has been bandaged - not sure why.

This red flower (Camellia?) was in the same area - gorgeous aren't they?

Below: Rikugien Gardens in Tokyo. My friend Reiko (who I met at the Yokohama Quilt Fair last year) and her daughter, Akiko, met us in Tokyo. We all had lunch together then they took me to these beautiful gardens and an old style shopping street. We had a lovely afternoon. The tree is typically asymmetrical which as Reiko explained, is preferred in Japanese gardens.

Yesterday I went to the Craft & Quilt Fair in Perth and had a big surprise. My two quilts I entered in the QuiltWest exhibition both won prizes. Magic Carpet won first in the amateur small quilt category & Stitch Sampler Quilt won second in the first time entrant section. I'm quite thrilled as its been a while since I've won anything and I had been wondering if I should even continue trying to make quilts.
There seemed to be more of interest to me at the fair this year but I didn't buy too much - only some Wonderfil threads, a small amount of fabric, a jar of paint and some embroidery scissors. The WAFTA Naturally exhibition was there too and looked good again in the different venue.

New ATCs and Tree

2010-05-18T01:15:00.000-07:00

Slowly getting back to work - The cold I caught while in Japan is nearly gone but still feeling tired and not 100% yet.

Today we had to get our big Marri tree cut down because it was dying. I'm very sad as it's always overlooked our back garden with lovely shade and shelter for the birds and animals. The garden looks very bare without it. But on the plus side the vegie garden will have more sun and we'll have room for a couple more fruit trees.

Before and after below.

The men who did the job were very good - one of them climbed up to the top, cut the branches one by one and guided them down so they didn't damage our grapefruit tree or anything else in the area. They've cleared up and mulched all the mess but still have to come back to cut down the main trunk.

Takayama

2010-05-15T02:05:00.000-07:00

Takayama is up in the mountains, a couple of hours by train from Nagoya. It's a lovely place to visit - still had some of the famous cherry blossoms (Sakura) flowering which was a bonus, as well as lots of great shopping and eating.

We visited a re-creation of a traditional mountain village. The houses are built with steep, sloping and very thick thatched roofs to withstand severe snow falls in winter. It was quite cold when we were there, but fine and sunny.

Japan Trip continued

2010-05-11T19:04:00.000-07:00

While we were staying with Renee, Toshiko, who used to be one of Renee's students, took us to a temple in the Suzuka Mountains only about an hours drive away. A beautiful area and in contrast to my last trip, very quiet and peaceful.

Cleansing our hands before visiting the temple.

While there, we had a tea ceremony - below was the sweet that came before the tea. Unfortunately I forgot to take a pic of the beautiful tea bowls. Tatami matting in the background which you kneel on for the tea ceremony. (if possible with old knees!)
Afterwards Toshiko took us out to a lovely lunch at an organic restaurant.

Gelatin Printing Workshop

2010-05-10T02:07:00.000-07:00

Margaret F has just sent me a photo of this quilt she made from the gelatin printed fabrics she did in my workshop for Designing Women on Saturday and she's permitted me to post the pic. It's a buzz when you see someone has taken a workshop technique further - thanks so much for sharing Margaret - well done!

Tokoname Pottery Village

2010-05-08T02:44:00.000-07:00

I arrived home from Japan Wednesday night but too busy getting organised for my workshop (today) to post before. All the pics are at The Tokoname pottery village near Nagoya. Above: both daughters. We had a lovely day wandering around - lots of little shops, old traditional houses, kilns and fantastic paths and walls made from left over pottery. The cat below is one of many (all different) from the wall outside the village.

Gelatine printing and more soy wax

2010-04-20T00:35:00.000-07:00

Top 2 pics are some of my gelatine prints - just quick ones because I needed to try out the process before I leave. I'm doing a workshop in this and the soy wax for one of my groups 3 days after I return.

The 2 next pics are soy wax painted with procion dyes. The advantage of using dyes is that you can layer the colours without changing the hand of the fabric. My dyes are old so the colours washed out a bit softer but not a bad result. I like the crackle effect in the sample below.

Soy Wax

2010-04-17T03:59:00.000-07:00

I had never used soy wax before - these are my first test pieces. Most are painted with textile paints, except the one with the circles inside squares which is painted with procion dyes. A few more dyed ones are batching. I prefer the dyed ones but paint will probably be easier in a workshop situation.
Must say, I still like traditional batik using paraffin & beeswax more, except for the hassle of removing the wax. Soy wax washes out in hot soapy water but because it is water soluble, the paint or dye tends to leach through and you don't get such a clear result - also you can't put it in a dye bath. However, I'll keep experimenting with it.

Today I tried gelatine printing, again for the first time - really enjoy this process! No pics yet. Both techniques are covered very well in Rayna Gillman's book: Create your own hand printed cloth which I would recommend.

Yesterday I took my finished quilt to be professionally photographed so I can enter Stitched & Bound. Another first - pat on the back for me - getting it done this time! I'm quite happy with the way it turned out but we'll see if the judges like it.
I'm off to Japan next Friday and there's lots to do before that, so may not blog until I return on the 5th May.

Quilt progress

2010-04-07T23:53:00.000-07:00

Today has been a mixed sort of day... this morning I had a BCC skin cancer removed from my arm - I have a 4 cm cut with stitches.

Then I decided to put my quilt, which I finished stitching yesterday evening, into the cloque bath. This is always a little nerve wracking when you've spent a lot of time assembling and stiching a piece. I've had one spectacular disaster with a large wool piece which was basically destroyed by the caustic - it went hard and brittle. However this time all seems to be well - it's drying on our trampoline at the moment after neutralizing and washing.

The pics show a test piece I did with similar fabrics. The top layer is silk crepe de chine, inside layers open weave cotton and bottom layer silk organza. The silk is horrible to stitch. I used microtex sharp needles and had to change them several times. I used my walking foot first to get it all together then free motion machine stitching using a hoop.
The quilt was 86 x 108cms and after shrinking ended up 66 x 83cms. The next thing is deciding whether it's finished and putting a hanging sleeve on.
I wish now I'd committed to the organized photography session this weekend but I really didn't think I'd get it done on time.

ATC Swap & Holey Moley

2010-04-06T00:20:00.000-07:00

Received these lovely ATCs in the mail today from Lorna in the UK. She couldn't decide which one to send so sent both. I'm very lucky, thanks Lorna!

I've sadly neglected my Holey Moley course but was inspired to do a little yesterday. These are for this months topic: Textures. Above left: texture using the backing fabric which shrinks with a steam iron. Top right: Dale's invention - Le Scrunch. Bottom right: the same fabric silver foiled and shrunk with hot water soluble. All worked well but I still prefer the Cloque technique.

Above top: shirring elastic wound tightly around a wire frame with scraps of fabric stitched over. Bottom left: same technique with grilon thread which shrinks when ironed. Bottom right: silk fabrics stitched on soluble vilene with grilon thread in the bobbin.

I've been trying to get my entry to Stitched and Bound 2010 done - it is going well so far but I have so many distractions at the moment with family etc. that I doubt it'll be ready on time but if not I'll try for another exhibition later on. At least I'm getting it made this time. For the 2008 one I had the fabric dyed and printed - and that's as far as it got.

Quilt finished & other stuff

2010-03-23T02:35:00.000-07:00

Above: made from the left over bits from another work in progress. I stiched them onto poly chiffon then heat-gunned from the back.
Below: The finished quilt 'Magic Carpet'. I first blogged this quite a while ago. I thought it was going to be a bag but decided it could be a wall piece but when I put on a backing and bound the edges I thought it needed more. I've now stitched on a lot of beads which has given it sparkle and more richness. I'm going submit it for the Quiltwest exhibtion in May - although they'll probably hate it! I'm also putting in my reject quilt from last years OZ Quilt exhibition. They say they will hang at least one from everyone, so we'll see what happens.
I'd be interested in any feedback on my new quilt. I'm not really sure whether I should carry on with quilting.

Below: a detail of 'Magic Carpet'

My package from Maggie Grey's givaway arrived yesterday. It was a lovely surprise and included one of Maggie's sample pieces, lutradur, romeo some hand-dyed cottons and silk, yarn and other fabrics all in colours I will enjoy using.

The drought has finally broken in Perth - a very bad storm yesterday evening with huge hail stones, lots of wind and rain which caused a lot of damage but we were lucky and just got the much needed rain - although we were without power for several hours. Others won't have power for several days apparently. Daughter Kathleen has some broken windows and damaged cars. I thought the storm would clear the air but it's still warm and muggy.

Textile Tantrums

2010-03-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

Above is the corner of one of my entries in Dale's Textile Tantrum exhibition. It's called Shattered. It's finished except for the sleeve and label. Below: some flowers I made for my other entry - although I'm not going to use them all. These have taken much longer than I planned but the end is in sight. Then it's on to my entry for Stitched and Bound.

Sculpture by the Sea 2010

2010-03-09T02:06:00.000-08:00

Here's my pick from Sculture by the Sea today. I'm sorry I don't know names as we didn't buy a $10 catalogue but there were many fabulous sculptures as usual. A gorgeous day today too - 32C with a nice breeze. Then Kathleen treated us to lunch - a birthday present for DH (Wayne).

Christmas swap & a workshop

2010-03-07T18:16:00.000-08:00

This is the gorgeous Christmas decoration I received from Suzanne. On the back (below) she's hand embroidered part of the chorus from the Christmas carol: We Three Kings of Orient Are. I'm very impressed - its beautifully done and I love it - thankyou Suzanne!

Yesterday I tutored a workshop for the 84 Group on print & paint techniques. I didn't take photos there but here area couple of my test and demo pieces. Above: printing with bleach - left: using a slice of pool noodle & right: a lino print.
Below: demo pieces with various techniques - the idea for the cardboard block where I've cut around circle shapes then removed the top layer of cardboard is from Melanie Testa's book: Inspired to Quilt. I've used cardboard before but I like this combination of shapes and stripes. Her book is mainly about printing with dyes for transparent layering in her journal quilts - quite interesting with some different ideas.

My next challenge is to try soy wax and gelatine printing as I'm doing a workshop for Designing women in April and have not tried either of the techniques before, although I have done traditional batik using parrafin and bees wax. I also have to get my textile tantrum for Dale finished this week and then my quilt for Stitched and Bound if I can.

And the exciting news is that I'm going to Japan again in late April/May. My daughter Kathleen wants to go and has talked me into going too as she didn't want to travel alone. So I should get to see some cherry blossoms. It will be a bit late but we're going to Takayama which is high in the mountains and has flowers later. We're also going to Tokyo and plan to visit fabric town and Tomato (famous fabric shop).

Christmas decoration challenge

2010-02-25T00:23:00.000-08:00

These are the decorations I made for the Innovative Stitches November Christmas swap challenge - everyone brought their selection of fabrics, beads, threads etc. which were distributed by a lucky dip. I got quite a large selection of gold and white from Anne so I was inspired to make a collection, including an ATC made with the left overs. I'll give them to Anne at our meeting on Saturday - hope she hasn't read my blog!
I should get back mine too, that someone else has made.

So hot in Perth today - about 42C I think and probably more here in the hills. No relief in sight either - at least for a few days.

Dissolvables at Designing Women

2010-02-15T22:46:00.001-08:00

At our first DW meeting this year, I did a mini demo on dissolvable fabrics. This little bowl was one of my samples. It’s fabric and thread scraps between 2 layers of vilene 541 stitched and moulded around a candle.

After the demos we had a challenge where we all brought a collection of interesting fabric scraps, threads, etc. which were each placed in a brown paper bag and given to someone else. The idea is to use the collection we received with dissolvable to make a finished piece by next meeting. I ended up with a rather mixed bag of colours that were not very compatible – might have to make a couple of pieces.

The pic below is my best effort to show the inside of the bowl – impossible to get all in focus.

I also did some experimenting with hot water soluble for the demo. The right one is before shrinking – left, after. This technique is described in QA mag issue 13.

Scraps of a silk print, dyed, then stitched onto cotton baby muslin. It was then put into a cloque bath to shrink the cotton. The silk doesn’t shrink, so you get a ruching effect seen in the photo below. The piece is about 45cms square so I think it will make a bag.

What I'm working on

2010-02-09T22:51:00.000-08:00

I've added some stitching & beads to my little felt piece - not quite finished yet. The green one is one of my new ones but I think it only needs a little stitching.

This fabric collage is finished for now. I took it along to the ATASDA meeting for some feedback - the advice was to tone down some of the yellow which was a bit jarring and add more orange - which I agreed with and have done. I still need to decide whether to add any more and to frame it or not. I'll leave it to 'stew' for a while - then decide.

This is a detail of a set project for one of my groups. We were given a size; 15 x 35 and the theme was A Whiter Shade of Pale. I hope I can get away with the tiny bits of red!

You may have noticed at the top of my blog there's a link to a new page called Textile Workshops. I'm often asked what I teach so thought this was an easy way for people to access the information. I'll add new ones as I get time.

I found out about this new feature of Blogger through Brenda - she has written about it on her blog - thanks Brenda!

Holey Moley: Layers

2010-01-28T01:55:00.000-08:00

In between other work I managed to get a sample done yesterday (top) for Holey Moley, an online course I'm doing. This month's topic is Layers and the top layer is a piece of knitting stitched onto panne velvet then burnt with the heat gun.

This technique is covered by the course too but I did this previously It's various fabrics placed on a felt backing, covered with poly organza, stitched and burnt with a small blow torch.

I had to take my sewing machine to get fixed today - the screw you loosen to change the needle broke off - how annoying is that! So no more sewing for a while as I gave my old machine to my daughter.

Scarf finished

2010-01-26T05:40:00.000-08:00

Yay! I finished my scarf for the competition today. I'll just show the corner in case there are any restrictions on publishing pics. It's silk pongee, dyed and printed with Napthols and it has cut out areas which were stitched using soluble vilene (541) as was the fringe. I'm happy with it but we'll see how it goes.
Happy Australia Day to all in Oz.

Felt Workshop

2010-01-24T04:38:00.001-08:00

This weekend I went to a great workshop: Exploring Surface Design in Felt.

The tutor was Lee Anne Davis who was excellent, providing plenty of knowhow and inspiration. We first made prefelts, then stitched, then felted again. The last step is to add more stitching/embellishment which I haven’t done yet. It was so hot at Craft House Menora I decided to leave the final stitching until later.

The first 2 pics show my samples after the first lot of stitching.

Below: after felting. I’ll post another photo when I’ve added the next layer of stitch.

I enjoyed this process – I’ll come back to it even though I’m not really a keen hand stitcher.

New book arrived

2010-01-13T01:47:00.001-08:00

This gorgeous book by Beverly Ash Gilbert arrived this week. It’s full of her beautiful jewellery with clear instructions on her methods of freeform bead weaving and using colour. Also includes 2 colour wheels with clever overlays that make choosing colour-ways easy.

I first ‘met’ Beverly through blogging – she has a great blog too – she’s a very good photographer.

Today I've been sorting out some UFOs that I'll use in upcoming projects. I found several that will be suitable - some for backgrounds and some that I can adapt to the size I need and finish off.

Windows Writer

2010-01-12T05:34:00.000-08:00

Just trying this way of adding to my blog after reading about it in the QDU Yahoo group.

Some recent printing (roller & lino block) Permaset on cotton fabric

Back to work

2010-01-10T18:48:00.000-08:00

Daughter Renee returned to Japan last week. We will miss her but hope she can visit again in May. So now there's no excuse - back to work for me.

I'm entering a scarf competition where you receive a white paj silk scarf and embellish it how ever you like. Below: an experimental one I did to see how it would look. The competition scarf is bigger than this and I've decided to do it differently but I do intend to use yarns and cutouts in it.

Below: a few ATCs. Only the lower right one is very new - the others were done during the Ken Smith workshops to practise bobbin work and use scraps.

Another holiday

2010-01-02T02:36:00.000-08:00

We're just back from a week in the Albany/Denmark region. Daughter, Renee, came back from Japan for Christmas and wanted to go down South - so off we went again. We had a great week with her and Kathleen.
Above: Some of the wildflowers we saw on the south coast. I don't know all the names, but top left is Albany woolly bush, bottom left, top is a Banksia, under that is Eucalyptus Ficifolia and bottom right is Banksia Coccinea which I've never seen growing wild before but we saw a big area of them - not many still flowering - I was lucky to get a good pic.

A few of my other pics from the trip that I was happy with - love the watery lines in the goldfish pond above. A complete fluke!

Now no more trips for a while. I'm actually looking forward to doing some textile work and there's a lot coming up.

Ginza & Neon

2009-12-23T07:37:00.000-08:00

Above: Ginza, an exclusive shopping street in Tokyo. I didn't buy anything here - way too expensive!

Below: neon lights - night shopping in Osaka and Tokyo

You can click on any picture for a closer view.

Merry Christmas!

Seasons greetings to those who don't celebrate Christmas. Best wishes to everyone for a healthy, happy, and creative 2010.